I remember the story about propellant scrapings in a container from a core
drilling caught fire from some spark initiated the propagating flash fire.
NH4ClO4 next detonated from the heat radiation. Must be in the AR email history
files.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1kTAX9uWcw
jd
-----Original Message-----
From: arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Henry Vanderbilt
Sent: maandag 20 juli 2015 18:24
To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AR] Re: PEPCON AP explosion report
IIRC it's not clear what started the fire at PEPCON, but it is clear that the
AP detonations didn't start taking place until after the stored material had
been heated by the fire. In terms of practical safety, I'd look to see whether
the AP is stored within significant radiant or conductive heating distance of
substantial amounts of anything flammable. If the physical setup is such that
a fire could happen that could then heat the AP drums, yeah, that would strike
me as needing fixing, urgently.
Henry
On 7/20/2015 9:08 AM, James Padfield wrote:
Thank you, that is indeed interesting.
I may as well tell you what I'm specifically interested in, as some on
this list may know the information I am looking for, or know where to
find it.
I have just discovered that there are 5 x 200kg drums of AP being
stored across from my office. I am aware that AP's propensity to
detonation is dependent on the particle size, but can find no
definitive information on the interweb. For example, I was looking to
buy a sample of AP from Sigma Aldrich as a standard for analysis, and
noticed that according to the MSDS it is listed as H201 Mass Explosion
Hazard (or R3 Extreme Risk of Explosion in the old R phrases) (see
link below). Sigma Aldrich give their AP particle size as > 45 micron.
http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/fluka/09910?lang=it®ion
=IT
Other information I can find seems to say that different states in the
US classify it differently, the US Army classifies it as 1.1 at < 15
um, etc etc...
Wikipedia says that the AP involved in the PEPCON explosion was
nominally 200 micron, so fairly coarse, in fact comparable to the
drums in the store opposite my office. I am trying to confirm that
figure for
200 um as I am wary of trusting Wikipedia, hence why I'm trying to
find the official accident reports.
So, anything anyone knows about whether I should be concerned about it
or not would be welcome...
On 20 July 2015 at 17:22, Derek Lyons <fairwater@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:fairwater@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Not the requested report, but interesting none the less;
http://www.triodyne.com/SAFETY~1/SB_V10N3.PDF
